Julius Okorie
Nigeria’s Falconets will battle Japan in the last 16 of the ongoing FIFA U-20 Women World Cup in Colombia on Friday.
Falconets were in killer mood with a 4-0 drubbing of Venezuela at Saturday night. True to primebusiness.africa prediction that the Christopher Danjuma tutored side will be on a table turning mission against Venezuela after losing 3-1 to Germany in their second match, the Nigerian girls dominated proceedings from the start to finish.
Join our WhatsApp ChannelThree first half goals by Amina Bello, Chiamaka Okwuchukwu, and Flourish Sebastine demobilised the Venezealan team with Joy Igbokwe scoring the fourth goal to seal the game.
The victory saw Falconets finish in the second place in Group D behind Germany, who grabbed three wins in three matches to top the group.
Nigeria’s last 16 opponents, Japan, late Sunday, beat Austria 2-1 to book a place in the last 16. Though Ghana disarmed New Zealand 3-1 in their last group match, it was not enough to prevent the West African neighbours from crashing out of the championship after finishing third in a group where Japan and Austria had already picked first and second positions with 9 and 6 points respectively.
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Ghana lost two matches and won one. Morocco equally failed to survive the group stage after finishing last in a group where Spain and United States had picked the first and second slots with 9 and 6 points respectively.
Cameroon however managed to survive the group stage, emerging from a weak group where hosts Colombia finished with 9 points, while Mexico and Cameroon earned four points each. Cameroon, however, progressed as best losers.
Japan won all their matches to accumulate 9 points going into the knockout stage.
The Falconets will dig deep in Friday’s match if they are to checkmate rampaging Japan.
The battle ground will be the Estadio Metropolitano de Techo.
In other last 16 pairings, Spain take on Canada, Brazil face Cameroon while Colombia tackle South Korea. Mexico and United States will settle scores, North Korea face Austria, Germany Battle Argentina in what promises to be battle royal while France slug it out with Netherlands.
Falconets have qualified for every edition of the FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup finishing as runners-up twice, losing to Germany on both occasions, in 2010 and 2014.
Julius Okorie is Chief Sports and Entertainment Correspondent for Prime Business Africa. He began his journalism career with the Champion Newspaper and Sporting Champion and later moved on to Daily Independent and the Nation Newspapers. Okorie joined Prime Business Africa in 2024 bringing on board 20 years of experience in writing investigative news on Sports and Entertainment. His well researched and highly informative articles on Sports Business and general entertainment are followed by a wide range of audience.
